We didn’t know our victim died after hitting him with hammer – Robbery suspects
The FCT Police Command has arrested five members of a suspected armed robbery gang that used their taxi to rob unsuspecting passengers.
The suspects, Ebuka Ejeanyido, 28; Chidebe Okocha, 36; Chukwuma Amichie, 30; Augustin Agbo, 32; and Chinedu Obi, 25, were arrested for using their vehicles to perpetrate robbery in what is called ‘one-chance’.
Police Commissioner Sadiq Bello while parading them along with other suspects on Thursday, said the command’s anti-kidnapping squad arrested the suspects during investigation of the disappearance of one Michael Ibebuogu Sunday. He said Sunday was reported missing by members of his family after he left his brother’s house at Apo for Suleja, Niger State on May 27 but never arrived his destination.
“The missing man’s phone was traced to one of the suspects who led police detectives to other suspects. The suspects confessed that one of them, Chidebe Okocha, hit Sunday on the head with a hammer when he tried to take control of their operational car from the driver.
“The suspects said they abandoned his body under Apo bridge. Effort is on to recover the remains of the deceased. The operational car used by the gang, one hammer and phone of the deceased have been recovered as exhibits,” Bello said.
While the police said the missing man was killed, the suspects while fielding questions from journalists, said they were not aware that the man was dead. They said they let the man out of the car after he was hit with a hammer and they saw him running off.
Chidebe Okocha, who admitted to hitting the victim with the hammer, told journalists how the gang operates. He said, “Four of us will be in the car, with three of us pretending to be passengers so when we see a passenger we will stop and the unsuspecting passenger will board. We will try to confuse him into using the seat belt and we will collect his or her money and other valuables.
“We carried one man and he noticed what we were about to do, so he was dragging the steering with the driver. I now hit him with a hammer so that he could remove his hands from the wheels. The driver parked, we collected the man’s phone and pushed him out of the vehicle. But we saw him walking away before we drove off.
“We gave the phone to one of our friends who put his SIM card inside and it was through the phone that the police tracked us. I started this job about four months ago. The car belongs to Ebuka Ejeanyido.”
Ejeanyido on his part said he used the car to operate as a legitimate cab driver before he met his friend, Augustin Agbo (aka Magic Finger) who introduced him to the crime.
Agbo said the one-chance crime did not involve use of force. “We only confuse the person by locking the door, and putting the seat belt. Unfortunately, this man (the victim) dragged the steering with Ejeanyido and my friend Chidebe hit him with a hammer to free his hands from the steering,” he added.